Guyana positioned for world-class gold discoveries in underexplored areas
Guyana has a rich history of gold mining with focus now turning to underexplored areas of the country with significant potential to host major discoveries. The country’s mineral wealth lies within the Guiana Shield, a geological formation spanning more than 900,000 square kilometers across northeastern South America which is renowned for its rich deposits of gold, diamonds, bauxite, and iron ore.
This formation, which extends into neighboring countries such as Venezuela, Brazil, and Suriname, hosts an estimated 110 million ounces of discovered gold.
This has attracted both large-scale international companies and small-scale artisanal miners, which contribute about 70% of the nation’s total gold output.
Among the large-scale mining projects that have made their mark are Omai Gold Mines Corp (TSX-V:OMG)'s past-producing gold mine and Zijin Mining’s Aurora project.
Other notable operators include Troy Resources and G2 Goldfields Inc (TSX-V:GTWO, OTCQX:GUYGF), which continue to explore and expand their projects in Guyana.
Despite its long history of gold mining, vast areas of the country remain untouched by modern exploration techniques. This, combined with a stable government and mining-friendly regulatory environment, presents a unique opportunity for the discovery of Tier-1 deposits in Guyana.
In northcentral Guyana straddling the Cuyuni-Mazaruni Mining Districts lies the promising Oko West project, which was recently acquired by G Mining Ventures Corp (TSX:GMIN, OTCQX:GMINF) through its takeover of Reunion Gold.
The company in September released a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the project which demonstrated an after-tax net present value (5% discount) of $1.4 billion, an internal rate of return of 21%, and a payback of 3.8 years at a consensus gold price of $1,950 per ounce.
Average annual gold production is projected to be 353,000 ounces at an all-in-sustaining cost of $986 per ounce for 12.7 years.
G Mining Ventures expects to follow up the PEA with a feasibility study planned for the first quarter of 2025.
Located nearby is Tajiri Resources (TSX-V:TAJ)' Yono project, where recent preliminary reconnaissance sampling has returned promising results.
The sampling, taken from quartz float and colluvium around inactive artisanal workings, returned a range of anomalous gold values which suggests potential gold mineralization upslope.
Of the five locations sampled, two showed consistently anomalous results.
In the northeast corner of Yono, nine samples yielded gold values ranging from 0.09 grams per ton (g/t) of gold to 800 g/t. In central north Yono, two out of three samples near artisanal workings returned 0.4 g/t and 0.7 g/t.
Although in-situ gold mineralization has yet to be directly observed, Tajiri Resources (TSX-V:TAJ) highlighted that these results suggest significant exploration potential in the area.
Meanwhile, in southwestern Guyana, Golden Shield Resources (CSE:GSRI, OTCQB:GSRFF) is advancing its flagship Marudi Mountain project, a 54 square kilometer land package on the prospective Marudi Greenstone Belt.
The company released the final results from its 2024 diamond drill campaign at the project in late May which included high-grade findings at both the Mazoa Hill and Pancake Creek prospects.
At Mazoa Hill, drilling returned 4.16 g/t of gold over 23 meters, including 7.01 g/t of gold over 11 meters. The deposit remains open to depth and to the west.
At Pancake Creek, it hit 25 meters grading 3.01 g/t of gold from surface.
Golden Shield intends to follow up on this high-grade near-surface zone.
With projects like Oko West, Yono, and Marudi Mountain showing promising results, Guyana's underexplored areas and favorable mining environment position the country for future world-class gold discoveries.
Source: https://www.proactiveinvestors.com